Monthly Archives: May 2003

Commentary has just posted the highlights of its June issue. The lead article is Victor Davis Hanson’s outstanding “Lessons of the war.” Key paragraph: “The real question remains whether, in the wake of Iraq, any of the normal ways of doing business are going to change. As far as the United States is concerned, one might hope that our face-to-face confrontation with and utter defeat of the Baathists »

If Caroline Glick is correct in saying that President has betrayed Israel by insisting on the road map for peace (see my post below), then hasn’t Ariel Sharon also betrayed Israel by accepting the road map? It is true that Sharon accepted it only under pressure from America, but the pressure was merely verbal. If the acceptance of the road map, in itself, manifestly jeopardizes Israel’s security, then it was »

Far be it from us to kick the New York Times when it’s down. But along with the issues of corruption, plagiarism, fabrication and bias, the Times has serious problems with simple competence. This item from yesterday’s Corrections section is illustrative: “A sports article on Sunday about the history of Roland Garros, the tennis stadium where the French Open is played, misstated the year in which the Germans began using »

Bret Stephens of the Jerusalem Post on the Jayson Blair and Rick Bragg capers. He finds that while the Blair caper reinforces what we already know about racial preferences and the ability of cheaters to flourish, the Bragg affair contains some new lessons about the parlous state of journalism at the Times and elsewhere. Stephens’ conclusion is this: “As job applicants routinely inflate their CVs, employers price this reality into »

I’ve finally had time to read and consider the piece Trunk posted a few days ago by Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post called “Washington’s Betrayal.” Glick argues that President Bush has betrayed Israel by forcing Ariel Sharon to endorse the road map for peace. She contends that, as a result, “the president’s credibility as a friend and an ally of [Israel] is necessarily in doubt” and thus that “we »

E.J. Dionne is not a very insightful columnist, even for a liberal, but his columns often provide an unintended entertainment value. Yesterday’s effort was a classic expression of the current, woebegone state of America’s Democrats: “President Bush’s signature on his big tax cut bill Wednesday marked a watershed in American politics. The rules of policy-making that have applied since the end of World War II are now irrelevant. A narrow »

We posted a few days ago on the woman who has sued the state of Florida, with the assistance of the Florida Civil Liberties Union, claiming that her Muslim religion requires her to wear a veil in her driver’s license photograph, which renders the photo useless as identification. So I couldn’t help being struck by this photo of Miss Egypt, who is currently participating in the Miss Universe pageant: It’s »

The alleged failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has given critics of the Administration hope that their attacks on the President will finally gain traction. The chorus of criticism is now swelling. Just as, prior to the start of the Iraq war, there was no shortage of retired generals willing to criticize the Administration’s strategy, retired intelligence officials are now coming out of the woodwork to critique »

On Wednesday of this week Minnesota’s new Personal Protection Act went into effect. The law vastly expands the right of Minnesota citizens to acquire licenses to carry guns, a right formerly subject to the unfettered discretion of local police chiefs or sheriffs. The new law would not have passed without Republican pickups in the Minnesota legislature and in the governor’s office in the last election, and has of course been »

The Washington Post has an interesting portrait of Tom Daschle cranking up his re-election machine in our favorite red state: “Democrat in Bush country.” Key fact: “[Daschle] said he plans to raise at least $10 million — enough money to purchase heavy air time starting this summer or sooner, and running straight through Election Day. South Dakota television markets are among the nation’s cheapest, so voters are likely to watch »

Reuel Marc Gerecht is a former CIA officer who served in Iran. Know Thine Enemy is the book he wrote (under the pseudonym of Edward Shirley) about his experience as an agent in Iran, and it is excellent. The cover story in the new issue of the Weekly Standard is Gerecht’s “The Mullah’s Manhattan Project.” The article is mandatory reading. Gerecht brings his professional experience and analytical abilities to an »

In attempted preemptive self-defense the Pentagon taped Paul Wolfowitz’s interview with Sam Tanenhaus, the author of the Vanity Fair article decried by Rocket Man below. The Pentagon’s public relations Web site has posted the transcript of the interview. Click here for the transcript. Here is the relevant passage: “TANENHAUS: Was that one of the arguments that was raised early on by you and others that Iraq actually does connect, not »

The Volokh Conspiracy has steered us to this interesting article from the Chronicle of Higher Education on blogs in the university setting: “Scholars who blog.” At the end of the article is a list of representative blogs and information regarding the sites. But how did the Chronicle miss the keystone of the Northern Alliance of Blogs? »

Before the first Gulf War, someone asked Bill Clinton how he would have voted on the Senate resolution concerning the war. He replied that he would have voted with the majority (in favor of the war resolution) if the vote was close but thought that the minority had the better arguments. At the time, this chillingly cynical statement about a question of war and peace seemed like something new in »

…has no goddam business giving interviews to Vanity Fair or similar magazines. Just because liberals are now listing him as an influential “neoconservative” is no reason for Wolfowitz to go Hollywood. And no matter how much he may claim to have been misquoted, it is simply inexcusable for him to have said anything that could be translated as: “bureaucratic reasons” caused the administration to use weapons of mass destruction as »

That’s Glenn Reynolds’ formula, and it fits what happened when a crazed Australian–not a terrorist, it turned out, just a nut–went berserk and charged the cockpit on a Qantas flight, attacking a flight attendant. The Sydney Morning Herald has a nice account of the incident. “I just thought, ‘You’re not getting in there to the flight deck’,” said flight attendant Greg Khan, fighting back tears. “So I took him on, »

Courtesy of Real Clear Politics and Town Hall, here is the latest from Michelle Malkin on the Muslim hate crime myth. It seems that several prominent Muslim “victims” perpetuated “hate crimes” against themselves. In some cases it was a hoax, in others a scam. »